Halo 4: Review Thread

Rickenslacker said:
Mh7uu.jpg


I'm glad to hear stuff like this is sparse but the inclusion at all is ugh.
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I'll tell you what. I can count on 1 hand's fingers how many QTEs there are in this game. Anyone that mentions them in any capacity is weird. There are barely any.
 
marc^o^ said:
Gamekult say the game lack innovations, it adds QTE (...) but relies on an old game design that feels even older in 2012. They say the campaign is too short. But the game shines in lots of other areas. 7 on Gamekult is a 8-10 on other sites.
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Much thanks :)
I know I'll read every review to the dot, just want a bunch of TL:DR style bullets (INCLUDING NEGATIVES!) from everyone.

<3
with this, i now go to bed. Class in the morning.
 
Is there a hyperbole quota IGN reviews have to meet for AAA games?

I posted this in the GB comments but...

Some gems from IGN's review:

"Amazingly, Halo 4 is not only a success, but a bar-raising triumph for the entire first-person shooter genre."

"It starts with a mesmerizing CG cutscene that flat-out knocks you on your ass."

"Perhaps equal to Halo 4’s monitor-melting visuals is its bar-none,"

"If you think you’ve heard Halo, check your ears and listen again. Nary a gunshot, MJOLNIR boot clank, or Covenant Elite’s “Wort wort wort” passes through your speakers without a significant, authoritative overhaul that lends an aggressive, testosterone-inducing punch to Halo 4’s combat."

Seriously?

I'm one of the biggest fan Halos I know (own 2 copies of each game, own multiple figures, read most of the books, comics, etc.) but this stuff is pretty funny to me.
 
Choc said:
The campaign is longer than Halo 3 and a lot longer than a COD campaign
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They also marked these down for being too short so they are being consistent.

Edit: Actually they even said Halo 3 was way too short, so even if Halo 4 is longer, it can still fall into the "too short" category.
 
marc^o^ said:
Gamekult say the game lack innovations, it adds QTE (...) but relies on an old game design that feels even older in 2012. They say the campaign is too short. But the game shines in lots of other areas. 7 on Gamekult is a 8-10 on other sites.
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They gave a 7 to Halo 3 and Reach too.
 
Monumental said:
Honestly, if you want a pure experience. Just avoid all reviews. Seriously. Even talking about the opening scene will diminish the impact of actually watching it for the first time. There are a lot of little spoilers in every review that you would be better off just playing the game first and then reading the reviews later.

And if you're really antsy then just go read the by-line at meta critic. The blurb from each site should get you hyped enough.
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I will take your advice. The number scores will due for now. Plus when people mention problems with a game I cannot help but look for them while I play. The number scores excite me enough. Thanks.
 
Monumental said:
I'll tell you what. I can count on 1 hand's fingers how many QTEs there are in this game. Anyone that mentions them in any capacity is weird. There are barely any.
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For me it's not quantity of them, but where they are. Uncharted 1 didn't have hardly any, but where they came was at the final boss, which was really shitty. As long as Halo's final encounter isn't "Press X to win", I'll probably not mind. I just hate QTEs. They feel lazy.

AHappyPanda said:
Seriously?

I'm one of the biggest fan Halos I know (own 2 copies of each game, own multiple figures, read most of the books, comics, etc.) but this stuff is pretty funny to me.
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Clearly he enjoys his job too much.
 
Dennis said:
Killer comment
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iseewhatyoudidthere.gif

dmg04 said:
I need to look up how big games are judged, as there isn't a -. If everything is unbeatable and better than ever, how is the game not a full 10?
I'm not saying IGN is wrong, I just want to know cuzz i've always wondered that for bigger games reviewed by them
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Games don't start at a 10 and lose points for things they do wrong. They start out neutral, and the positive or negative experiences the reviewer has then adds or takes away points from that pile. I personally have given games ~8s before that I don't really have many complaints about. They didn't "lose" two points for bad things. They just didn't earn those two points for doing better things.

I don't speak for Ryan or IGN as a whole, though. I know his review mentions a few small dislikes.
 
So general consensus is the game is great, and if anything is holding it back from being perfect was it could have been a little more fresh? Because if so, that sounds good to me.. The game looks super fresh, but I agree that the weapons could feel more alien, etc. Can't freaking wait to play this game.

Whats the consensus on the story telling? More cohesive than past Halo's?


Monumental said:
You're not hearing anything about frame rate because there are no frame rate issues. Trust me dude. I did notice the glitches you were talking about with the sound, but honestly, I never once encountered that in the campaign, or any other glitches. I think the sound glitches may be a result of some networking bug. Thats why you're noticing them in online multiplayer and co-op spartan ops videos.
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Sounds good to me. The audio bug is a little weird, but it does seem very infrequent judging by the Machinma stream.

Hm

Is there a Gravity Hammer specific assassination?
 
GDJustin said:
Here's a little bit of inside-baseball for you guys, re: those slightly-silly descriptors screen capped from the IGN video review - the way our templates work for video reviews right now limit us to very few characters in those pro/con slots.

So we could say things like "Great sound" or "Great Graphics." Something as simple as "Impressive Visuals" probably doesn't fit. And YES, I know he had enough room for "Ear-gasmic."

I'm just saying, there's something like 16 characters to work with, and you want to make an impact, communicate your point, and avoid being redundant. So you end up with things like "killer" multiplayer, at the end of the video review.

The written review doesn't have these limitations, so you'll see more fully-formed pros/cons: http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/01/halo-4-review

+Astounding aesthetic, AI, presentation
+Unbeatable sound design
+Impeccably paced campaign
+Endless, balanced multiplayer
+Still-unmatched social multiplayer options
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If its important to make an impact and communicate your point, change the template?
 
All good so far! My only gripe is that French site, 7's across the board for all Halo games apparantly reviewed by the same guy.
 
Baconsammy said:
For me it's not quantity of them, but where they are. Uncharted 1 didn't have hardly any, but where they came was at the final boss, which was really shitty. As long as Halo's final encounter isn't "Press X to win", I'll probably not mind. I just hate QTEs. They feel lazy.
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They're not QTEs, they're "interactive cinematic wiggebajoos".
 
There's so much I want to talk about and debate regarding the reviews, I wish I didn't have work in 50 minutes.

Lots of great and not so great things to talk about.

I wish I had a direct line to the reviewers too, to bounce questions off them.
mxgt said:
Let's not do this again, the Uncharted review thread was utterly embarrassing when it came to the Eurogamer score. (which was about right for the game anyway)
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You can't stop them.
 
Congrats 343i, cannot wait to play this for many years to come. Unbelievably excited to see the chief again, and it looks like how I've always wanted Halo to truly be.
 
C4Lukins said:
I will take your advice. The number scores will due for now. Plus when people mention problems with a game I cannot help but look for them while I play. The number scores excite me enough. Thanks.
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The bolded is a HUGE problem with reading reviews. What I'm noticing is that many of the reviews are completely conflicting each other about certain things, and that's because they're bringing their own views in their review. But once you read them, you'll only look at the negative opinion, and it will be a detriment to your experience.

Play the game first. Make up your own mind about it's faults and it's triumphs. Then go and read reviews.

Honestly, I did my best to give impressions that don't spoil anything while also keeping my own issues to myself so you can make your own decisions.

Read this for my impressions.
 
Driftwood went crazy with his review, it's pretty great dare I say :)
http://www.gamersyde.com/news_gamersyde_review_halo_4-13536_en.html

His conclusion, but I would say it's worth reading all of it.
With Halo 4, developer 343 Industries wants to invite us on a new journey, but a memorable one to say the least. A new start for the Master Chief, who experiences here his best adventure ever in his career at the UNSC. Just the single player campaign makes Halo 4 a must have for any Xbox owner, but if you add to that the excellent Spartan Ops mode and a multiplayer component worthy of the series' legend, you really have the perfect package to spend the next months fighting for the human cause. Visually superb thanks to a great artistic direction and divine lighting effects, Halo 4 can also count on a superb original soundtrack which manages to make us forget about the absence of the series' main theme. Sure there are a few flaws, some objective, some more subjective, but the bottom line is that this new installment in the franchise has offered us more than any other first person shooter has in the past few years. For that, we just want to say thanks.
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Also 4 videos from spartan ops, and 2 from multiplayer.
 
Dynopia said:
All good so far! My only gripe is that French site, 7's across the board for all Halo games apparantly reviewed by the same guy.
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They gave a "selection" to several of them though, it kinda means "the game is not perfect but you really should play it".
 
dmg04 said:
After being an avid halo fan for 10+ years, I'm excited. This really is taking me back to the day my "Cool Older Brother" brought in Halo: CE the first time. He said he had something that would blow my mind. Now I'm here today, And I'm getting soggy eyed over the potential of a beautiful looking game :)

Judge all you want, I'm hyped for this game and could give a shit less.
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No, that's cool. I didn't mean to rain on your parade.

do your thing mang
 
 
cluto said:
GiantBomb says it's more of the same. Penny Arcade says it isn't. Which is it?
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Think of the 10 Best Campaign levels from all the Halo games.
Halo 4 has about the perfected versions of 8 of them.

Think of your favourite moments of exploration in any Halo game.
Halo 4 will match the best of them.

Think of all the things that you found disappointing about Cortana's lack of rampancy and MC's interaction with her.
Halo 4 puts emphasis on those two characters and their interaction more than you could've possibly hoped.

The NEW in this game is partly a mix of set piece moments, environment scenery, musical score, and character interaction.

The "more of the same" comes from the fact that the game PLAYS exactly like what you'd expect Halo to play like. You're still headshotting enemies, juggling 2 weapons, hijacking ghosts, etc... The game play stays intact, while the sound effects, the score, the environments, the story, the dialogue, the emotion, and the stakes all get amplified.
 
Great review scores all round, I'm glad. The snippets I've been reading in this thread have me hyped about the campaign.

Thanks to vire for keeping the thread updated.
 
Are there people complaining in the thread that it's not getting high enough reviews? It has a 91/100 average across 33 reviews on Metacritic (which, if you read some of those 4/5 reviews, is not actually indicative of a 80/100 and is probably dragging the score down in reality but the Metacritic scale is too analog to tell the difference)..wut?
 
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